Vanilla Bean Glazed Honey Cake Doughnuts

It’s no secret that I’m a huge chocolate fan, it would seem that the chocolate fanaticism is genetically passed down in my family, (just kidding… but seriously)! But weirdly enough I’m an equally enthusiastic fan of anything vanilla.

There’s nothing quite like a buttery-tender cake heavily scented with vanilla, and when you pair that with a cup of coffee, you’ve got my favorite indulgence. The relationship between vanilla and coffee is well documented, (affogato anyone) and for me it even outweighs the coffee/chocolate combo.

These doughnuts are a combo of two favorites, the first inspiration is the most amazing vanilla cake from the former Editor in Chief of Gourmet Magazine, Ruth Reichl. It’s called Nicky’s Vanilla Cake and it’s located in her book, Garlic and Sapphires, (all her books are a great read if you’re crazy about food) and the cake is truly spectacular!

My second inspiration comes from memories of my favorite doughnut as a child, the Old Fashioned Glazed. I combined the vanilla cake flavors that I remember, (remade with grain free ingredients) with a doughnut shape and glaze, and I got my new weekend indulgence!

This recipe is really simple and doesn’t require a mixer. Simply whisk together the dry ingredients, mix them together with the wet ingredients, and you’re ready to bake.

You can make these with coconut oil, but butter definitely has the edge!

After the batter is mixed, spoon the batter evenly into a doughnut pan, there might be a little leftover that you can bake in a muffin tin or second doughnut pan if you have one. When the batter has been portioned, smooth out the tops of the doughnuts a bit with the back of the spoon before baking them.

Even though it’s really hard to wait, these need to cool until they’re barely warm before you turn the pan upside down to release them onto a cooling rack to finish cooling to room temperature. If you try and get them out sooner, you run the risk of breaking 1 or 2.

Once they’ve cooled, you’re ready to glaze them. I started off all neat and tidy by spooning the glaze over them, but in the end I dunked each one into the glaze before carefully removing them (cake doughnuts are fragile) just to speed things up a bit. I ended up with a few crumbs in the glaze, but I felt like it was a pretty small price to pay considering it saved me a ton of time!

As I mentioned before, these are really good with coffee. My sister stopped by just in time, and ended up with a freshly baked doughnut, and an Americano in her to-go cup!

I thought I’d give you an up close view of the pound cake-like texture of these doughnuts because seeing is believing. I wouldn’t blame you for a moment if you were a bit skeptical that you can actually make doughnuts without processed ingredients, but these will change your mind in just bite!

Instructions

Melt the honey and butter together, set aside to cool before whisking in the egg and vanilla extract.

Mix the honey mixture into the almond flour mixture until combined and there are no lumps.

Divide the batter evenly between the 6 doughnut spots, filling each one about 3/4 of the way full. The batter is quite thick, and I used 2 spoons to spread it around. I had a little leftover batter, and made ‘doughnut holes’ by baking the remaining batter in a mini muffin tin.

Bake for 7-10 minutes or until puffy and no longer gooey in the center. You can check the doneness by inserting a toothpick in the center, when it comes out clean or with moist crumbs, the doughnuts are done. Let the doughnuts cool for at least 20 minutes before removing them from the pan to cool to room temperature on a cooling rack.

Make the glaze by melting everything together over low heat just until liquified.

You can either dip the doughnuts into the glaze (carefully, cake doughnuts break easily) or you can spoon the glaze evenly over each doughnut.

Notes

The glaze for these doughnuts is sweet like a normal frosting which makes these great with a cup of coffee. However if you like things on the less sweet side feel free to play around with the glaze.

Did you make this recipe?

44 Comments on “Vanilla Bean Glazed Honey Cake Doughnuts”

Kari, these are fantastic. I actually did use almond meal since I didn’t have blanched almond flour, and still loved them. Instead if making the glaze I added the juice and zest of 1/2 lemon to the batter, then drizzled a bit of honey on the baked doughnut. Thank you for the great recipe!

I love these and have made several times. So yummy, yet for some reason last time I made them they were dry. I live in high altitude zone. Could this be a reason? I’d love to be able to get them a little more moist because they are delicious and healthier choice to doughnuts.

I’m not sure what would have happened if you’ve made them before without problems, but a couple things it could be is your oven might not be accurate anymore and they got over baked. Another thing I’ve had happen is different batches of tapioca seem to work slightly different so maybe that was it? Also like you mentioned altitude is always a factor in baking, but if you hadn’t had problems with the previous batches, you wouldn’t think that was the problem. The first thing I’d look at is baking them just a tad less next time!

Hi everyone! My name is Kari. I’m enjoying country living here in the Flathead Valley, Montana. I love to create mostly healthy recipes, and occasionally a chocolatey indulgence. I hope you find something inspirational; let me know what you think. Read more…